“Fish where the fish are.”
Believe it or not, the world has not abandoned Twitter, in fact, just the opposite. While Facebook and Google Plus use are declining, Twitter is gaining users globally. The average user sends a half a Tweet per day and the site has reached 360 million registered users.

What is Twitter, Anyway?
Twitter has been called a micro-blog but I like to think of it more like a bulletin board for the world. Everything from natural disasters to in depth discussions takes place on this public forum. Brands are using Twitter to communicate with prospects and customers, provide timely customer service and even to increase revenue.

Conversing on Twitter:

Twitter will allow you to share your messages in 140 characters or less.

Create user-friendly usernames: keep the name as short as possible, make it memorable, avoid punctuation. Consider something like AshleyParkRockStars, ParkPlaceCares or something that would inspire a human response.

Use a picture of real humans in your profile picture, perhaps in front of your community or in the leasing office.

When you “follow” someone, you’re essentially subscribing to their status updates.

Listen, look around, before you start tweeting.

Ask questions, reply with personality to questions that are asked.

Rather than following everyone at first, develop the right list of followers so that you are having real conversations with real people online.

Who to follow:

Follow residents and prospects

Follow local businesses and hometown celebrities

Follow employees and prospective employees

Search twitter for keywords including neighborhood + apartment, city + “looking for an apartment” and follow their accounts – reply to their questions if they are asking for recommendations on where to live

Follow your competitors – know what they’re doing and who they are talking too… while you’re at it, follow their followers too!

Here is a list of 100 more must-follow individuals and companies in the multifamily and apartment marketing industry (link 4).

Stay tuned for our next posts, 30 Tweet Ideas: Part 2 of the Twitter Series for Property Managers and Twitter How-To’s.